As soon as someone repeats the old canard about the cash from his dad's emerald mines, I know to disregard everything else that they have to say.

First of all there are a lot of questions about whether that story is true. And even if it was, it isn't material to Elon's success: https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-mus...

Second, what makes Elon truly remarkable is what he accomplished AFTER he made < $200 million from selling PayPal. Most of which were impossible according to conventional wisdom in the industries that he accomplished them in. Anyone who fails to recognize that, has demonstrated a complete lack of comprehension.

Thanks for this link, this and the quora post is the most balanced article I've read about this so far and is a breath of fresh air in the highly polarized coverage of the man.

Turns out Musk's dad gave an interview and confirmed the emerald mine: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-dad-tells-bi-abou...

Key quote:

'We had so much money we couldn't even close our safe'

So, as soon as somebody cites a fact that is confirmed by an authoritative source that can be googled pretty trivially, you cease to take them seriously. Honestly, this is par for the course with Musk fans and it baffles me.

As for Musk himself, um, I'll continue to go with "rich kid gets richer due to quantitative easing, some supposed business sense albeit not much actual evidence for it, and state subsidies for most of his businesses".

It is also probably worth calling this part out too: an interview with Elon Musk is not "balanced coverage" of Elon Musk.